Download Studies of particular languages

Studies of particular languages
ENGLISH
75-15
See also abstracts 75-4, -68
Algeo, John. The voguish uses of 'non'. American Speech (New
York), 46, 1/2 (1971) [published 1974], 87-105.
The history of the use of the prefix non is briefly sketched in, from its use in legal
terminology in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries to its increasing variety of
uses at the present time. It filled a need in defining a class that had no other
common characteristic than the exclusion of some other group, e.g. nonverbal
communication. It was felt to be more unemotional than other negative prefixes
(cf. nonreligious/irreligious): this is called its privative use. Its use for euphemism (nonstandard rather than substandard) and prestige (nonprofit organisations, nonsalaried official) is noted. Its original basic meaning was simple
negation, impartial in tone.
Since 1960, it has undergone a morphemic split into several homophonous
prefixes. Pejorative non, with a connotation of emotional judgement (a nonbookis
a book with the external appearance but without the value of a real book); and
dissimulative non, the opposite (nonactingis acting so restrained as to appear not
to be acting), i.e. something with the value but without the obvious external
appearances. This usage often implies admiration. The vogue for pejorative non,
which is much more commonly used, is due to the ironic contrast with privative
non: it sounds equally objective but is not. [The wide-ranging grammatical use
of these morphemes is illustrated, and objections are cited.] [Glossary gives 80
examples of pejorative and 16 of dissimulative non.]
75-16
Allerton, D. J. and Cruttenden, A. English sentence adverbials:
their syntax and their intonation in British English. Lingua (Amsterdam), 34, 1 (1974), 1-29.
The tests of Davies and Greenbaum for subcategorising sentence adverbials (viz.
adverbs, adverbial phrases, prepositional phrases, NP of time, etc.) are critically reviewed and a new and detailed analysis is offered. This ranges over
syntactic and semantic properties like position in the string, co-occurrence
restrictions and paraphrase relations. Further, it is hypothesised that intonational variations on adverbs will be constrained by the syntactic-semantic
subcategorisation. Detailed examination of intonation on sentence initial
adverbs confirms that particular intonation patterns correlate with certain
semantic, modal, and informational (focus) characteristics of adverbs. Thus conjunctional adverbs, such as therefore, require a separate intonational group for the
LIA VIM
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STUDIES OF PARTICULAR LANGUAGES
adverbial with a consequent nuclear tune, whereas most other classes can occur
as part of the pre-nuclear tune. Supporting verification for the hypothesis comes
from tests of informant reaction to a variety of intonations on differing
subcategories of sentence initial adverbials. [References.]
75-17
Baron, Naomi S. The structure of English causatives. Lingua
(Amsterdam), 33, 4 (1974), 299-342.
Causation is defined: NP or sentence Z changes state of affairs X at time T\ to
state of affairs X' at later time T 2 . The formal devices available for the
expression of causation in English are listed: vowel alternation in verbs (to fall,
to felt), suppletion (die, kilt), verbs that have both ergative and non-ergative
forms (dry), affixatiori (enrich), and periphrasis (make, have, get, etc., + complement sentence). Only periphrasis is examined in detail and a set of semantic/
syntactic parameters is established to (begin to) define the properties and
internal relations of periphrastic constructions. Among those noted are cooccurrence restrictions on types of complement with particular causatives, and
co-occurrence restrictions and transformational input conditions affected by (i)
the choice of simultaneous features I 7
T
in the complement, (ii) the
v
' v '
L± ergativeJ
role (Agent or Instrument) of the causer, (iii) whether or not the action is
intended (this affects the passivisability of the complement), (iv) the manner
of causing (if this is predictable from the verb it cannot be expressed in surface structure). [References.]
75-18
Legrand-Granger, Sylviane. On some active and passive complex
structures. Cahiers de I'lnstitutde Linguistique (Louvain), 1, 5 (1972)
[published 1974], 705-32.
Transformational grammar [references] is used to contrast' object with infinitive' active structures and the corresponding passives in French and English.
Following discussion of Chomsky's study of expect and persuade, four characterisations of the matrix verb of English are proposed: thinking, judging,
declaring, volition or causation, with or without effect on another person, and
perception, together with let and make. Although the richer categories of
English are the study's starting-point, the categories in the two languages are not
symmetrical. Consideration is given to the grammaticality of sentences drawn
from French as caiques of the English examples for each category. Subdivisions
within the English data are analysed [examples and discussion].
The infinitive construction is very restricted in French. It is not possible for
the NP which is constituent in the embedded sentence to be raised to the matrix
(as for / expected the doctor to examine John). While the construction is possible
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FRENCH
with voir, entendre, laisser and faire, in other cases French does not exhibit
ambiguity such as He wouldn't allow John to go with them, distinguishing one
interpretation as an infinitive construction, the other as a dependent clause
construction. The rarity of passivation in French is best accounted for by
grammatical constraints, such as the constraint on an indirect object as subject of
a passive verb, and the constraint on raising the embedded NP. [Bibliography.]
FRENCH
75-19
See also abstracts 75-18, -25
Ford, Jerome C. The semantics of direct address pronouns in
French. French Review (Baltimore, Md), 47, 6 (1974), 1142-57.
The pronouns of power and solidarity by Brown and Gilman (1960) is examined in
the light of changes in the use of tu and vous during and after May 1968.
Notions of 'distance' and 'disdain' are added to the categories for vous; the
notion of 'shared fate' among users of tu is discarded. Use of tu was gradually
expanding before 1968, and became pervasive during the May crisis; where vous
was temporarily ousted it did not subsequently make a complete return in all
situations. [Field observations made in 1968, 1971 and 1973: corroboration of
native speakers.] The likelihood of tu being spontaneously used by total
strangers is estimated by such factors as geography (Paris v. regions); age (up to
30 v. over 30), sex of the speaker vis-a-vis that of the interlocutor, and student v.
non-student status. When a speaker feels solidarity with a group of interlocutors
tu may be used to address more than one person.
74-20
Lifetree-Majumdar, M. J. Contribution a l'analyse des modes de
composition nominale en francais ecrit contemporain. [Contribution
to the analysis of ways of making compound nouns in current written
French.] Cahiers de Lexicologie (Paris), 24, 1 (1974), 63-84.
Of 5,049 neologisms culled from Le Monde in 1955, 1306 are compound nouns.
The sources of new compounds are usually: popularisation of technical jargon;
public interest in new phenomena (ville-champignon), and nonce creations for
brevity by authors of newspaper articles. Sixteen- nouns lose part of their
semantic content to assume a partly surfixal role (guerre-eclair; diffusion-eclair;
voyage-eclair). This compounding mode is potentially very fruitful. 276 compounds combine elements which retain their full semantic content: 33 of them
are sociological or financial jargon; 14 appear in subsequent dictionaries. Two
substantives in apposition, each with undiminished semantic force, may be used
to designate and define something, usually a person's profession or a place - this
is economical of time and newsprint but clumsy to pronounce and probably
rarely used in conversation. 149 examples show hiatus, usually of a preposition
3-2
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STUDIES OF PARTICULAR LANGUAGES
(allocation-menage), sometimes of much more (franc-tourisme, dollar-cafe). Some
compounds render nouns invariable which would have plural form in the fully
realised syntagm. Many of these apposition compounds appear in dictionaries
published 16 years later; administrators' jargon is likely to be lexicalised.
[Elided syntagms: en, apartirde, a la, etc. Cote becomes almost a preposition.]
Bound elements (eurasiatique) are uncommon. Enough examples are available to
permit construction of a typology of noun-compounding modes in informal
written French. [Analyses, examples.]
GERMAN
75-21
Helbig, Gerhard and Kempter, Fritz. Die uneingeleiteten Nebensatze im Deutschen und ihre Vermittlung im Fremdsprachenunterricht. [Subordinate clauses not introduced by conjunctions and
their place in the teaching of German as a foreign language.] Deutsch
als Fremdsprache (Leipzig), 11, 2 (1974), 75-86.
Syntactically, subordinate clauses depend on and are part of main clauses. Hence
unreal wish-clauses (Kame er dock jetzt!) are not classed as such. These
subordinate clauses are equivalent to those clauses with conjunctions, but having
neither a conjunction nor a finite verb at the end, are signalised by intonation. If
equal to a subordinate clause with dafi, they have their finite verb in second
place; if equal to a wenn or obwohl clause, they have their finite verb in first place.
Subordinate clauses without conjunctions, if subject or object clauses, will
depend on the verbs, adjectives or nouns (usually indicating statement or
feeling) with which they are connected. Otherwise they may be conditional
clauses, with or without modal verb, or concessive clauses, requiring inclusion of
auch and adding dock to the main clause. Subordinate clauses without conjunctions are roughly as frequent as equivalent clauses with conjunctions, and in
practice most of them are object clauses. Presenting no word-order problems,
they should be taught quite early in the course - actively in oral courses and
passively in reading or translation-type courses. Pupils should first hear or see the
clauses in significant forms of communication, and then be made specifically
aware of them and the rules pertaining to them. The material should then be
reinforced and activated in relevant and meaningful exercises.
75-22
Metschkowa-Atanassowa, S. Zur Synonymie zwischen der Konstruktion' haben+zu+Infinitiv' und den Modalverben. [The synonymity of the' haben+zu+infinitive' construction and the modal verbs. ]
Deutsch als Fremdsprache (Leipzig), 11, 2 (1974), 106-10.
Twenty-four examples show synonymous uses of haben+zu+infinitive for
miissen, konnen, wollen, sollen; but with some uses of /mtan+zu+infinitive the
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GERMAN
meaning depends on the infinitive: thus it can mean' to have good cause to' or it
may even have an imperative sense. The haben+zu+infinitive construction has
more nuances than the modal verbs; it expresses its modal value less definitely
and this lexical indefiniteness allows free play to subjective interpretation, and
even to differentiation between two-stage complex modalities.
75-23
Schluroff, Michael. Flexionsklassen von Substantiven und ihre
Haufigkeitsverteilung. [Nouns arranged in inflectional classes and
their distribution according to frequency.] Linguistische Berichte
(Braunschweig), 31 (1974), 19-30.
Almost all inflected nouns in German can be categorised in 18 singular and 16
plural classes. The frequency of distribution among these classes will be
important for the effectiveness of either machine analysis or of the generation of
texts in natural language. For the most frequent inflectional classes, generation
by morpho-syntactical rules is more economical than storing inflectional forms in
a lexicon and calling for them by lexical rules. For the less frequent inflectional
classes the decision on the use of lexical or morpho-syntactical rules will depend
on the particular text or lexicon available. If the decision is to use both sets of
rules, it will be best to separate singulars from plurals and often it will be
sensible to use morpho-syntactical rules to produce singular forms only or plural
forms only.
75-24
Weber, Siegfried. Die Verwendung des Verbs in Satzen mit adjektivischem Pradikativ im Deutschen. [The use of the verb in sentences with an adjectival predicate in German.] Zeitschrift fur Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung (Berlin), 27,
1/3 (1974), 241-5.
The use of various verbs is studied in sentences where the predicative adjective
refers to the subject (Er ist zuverldssig) and those where it refers to the object (Ich
halte ihn fur zuverldssig). (In the first group, the subject denotes the bearer of a
given quality (Merkmaltrdger = M,) and the predicative adjective or participle
denotes the quality (Merkmal= M 2 ). The basic verb sein may be replaced by
•werden, bleiben, scheinen and heissen, all of which serve to alter the viewpoint of
the sentence. Five main possibilities are envisaged within the subject predicative type sentence: (1) verbs which emphasise the appearance of M,; (2) behavioural verbs; (3) verbs expressing subjective feelings; (4) verbs denoting
a progressive process, and (5) verbs denoting the condition of M,.
The second type of sentence has a different pattern: Er(M3) halt ihn (M,) fur
zuverldssig (M 2 ). Here the subject denotes the person (M3) assigning the quality
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STUDIES OF PARTICULAR LANGUAGES
(M2) to its bearer (M,). Three possibilities of verb usage are discussed in this
group: (a) verbs forming a judgment of the object, (b) verbs designating the
object, and (c) verbs expressing result or effect. This brief survey shows the need
for a more systematic examination of the semantic aspect of verb usage, which is
only touched upon in most grammars. [Many examples.]
ITALIAN
75-25
Borsari, A. Valeria. Quantificazione ed uso dell'articolo in italiano
e francese. [Quantification and use of the article in Italian and
French.] Lingua e stile (Bologna), 9, 1 (1974), 101-16.
Articles are quantifiers whose function is essentially predicative. Their role is
best examined by using' free logic' - which relates to all possible universes (and
hence to contexts of discourse) rather than to the ' real' universe of Peano and
Russell. Such an approach harmonises the operations of natural languages with
the laws of logic, making the languages appear less irregular.
Un corresponds to an existential quantifier [its relationship with uncountables is examined]. The numerical semantic trait of un with an uncountable or a
unique class is characteristic and fundamental: the issue is not one of countability or uniqueness in a real universe but of the intrinsic possibility of referring
to various elements belonging to the same class. From this basis the functions
of un can be compared with the functions of other parts of speech.
A thing is nowadays considered to be a class of events, so any one thing or
object constitutes a class in itself at the moment that it is first introduced into a
discourse; il/le is here used as a truly universal quantifier (not just in the
restricted' real' universe of Russell). In its other function as an indicator, i///ecan
be formalised by referring to a contextual operator analogous to the iota
operator but functioning solely within the universe (i.e. the context) to which the
discourse refers. Il/le operates here at a subordinate level and refers by means of
its indicative function to arguments initially presented by either the existential or
the universal quantifier.
SPANISH
75-26
Bracamonte, Ana Maria. The syntactic behaviour of some adjectives in Spanish. Lenguaje (Trujillo, Peru), 14, 1 (1974), 10-16.
The different Spanish equivalents of the past participle known functioning as an
adjective are explained with examples. The selection of the conjunctions may
depend on the type of adjectives and their grade (bueno only admits que; mejor
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RUSSIAN
admits que and si). Another class of adjectives have restrictions as to infinitive
transformations. Some other adjectives show peculiarities with regard to accompanying adverbs functioning as intensifiers (muy concurridobut not enormemente-concurrido; demasiado pesado para llevarlo but not pesado para llevarlo).
Adjectives may also be classified according to their co-occurence with nouns
(ensenanza eficiente but not ensenanza eficaz; metodo eficaz but not metodo
eficiente).
75-27
Kvavik, Karen H. and Olsen, Carroll L. Theories and methods in
Spanish intonational studies: survey. Phonetica(Basle), 30, 2 (1974),
65-100.
The various approaches used in Spanish intonational research are demonstrated
and evaluated. Dialectical studies, theoretical and methodological approaches,
and intonation representational schemata are reviewed in a chronological order
and integrated with the main theoretical currents of the field. The authors
suggest directions for future research and present a summary of their own
investigations into two dialects of Spanish - Castilian and Mexican - using the
computerised intonation extractor of the University of Toronto.
RUSSIAN See also abstracts 75-6, -39
75-28
Filin, F. P. 0 6 Hcroicax pyccKoro jiHTepaTypHoro »3HKa. [On
the sourcesof the Russian literary language.] Bonpocbi n3biKO3HanuH
(Moscow), 3 (1974), 3-13.
The question of how many literary languages existed in Kievan Russian is an
eternal problem of Russian linguistics. Saxmatov considered there to be only one
such language, Church Slavonic, subsequently russified to give the Russian
literary language; certainly writing in Russia was introduced from Bulgaria via
Church Slavonic. Obnorskij claimed that there were two literary languages,
Church Slavonic and Old Russian, the latter based on East Slavonic speech;
Obnorskij would have Old Russian distinct in origin from Church Slavonic, and
only subsequently influenced by it; however, textual evidence is against so
distinct an origin for Old Russian. The Saxmatov school neglects Old Russian
legal and commercial documents, claiming that these are not within the literary
language, but this is based on too narrow a conception of the literary language.
In fact, with the introduction of writing to Russian there arose two closely
related, but independent literary languages, Church Slavonic and Old Russian.
The latter had both a written and an oral variant. In the ninth-eleventh
centuries Common Slavonic had already disintegrated, so Russian and Old
Church Slavonic were distinct languages. The precise origins of the Russian
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STUDIES OF PARTICULAR LANGUAGES
literary language still remain to be investigated in detail; some progress can be
made by studying the proportion of Church Slavonic and East Slavonic elements in the modern literary language and, although much work remains to be
done, it seems that the basis of the literary language was popular Russian speech,
with Church Slavonic as an important supplement.
75-29
Launder, Michael K. Prefixal-suffixal derivation of the Russian
adverb. Slavic and East European Journal (Urbana, 111), 17, 3 (1973),
301-7.
One of the means by which Russian builds adverbial forms is on the pattern of the
prepositional phrase: preposition+nominal stem+case-ending. The nominal
element may be an extant noun, but in some cases is a verbal root which does not
function independently as a noun; alternatively, it may be derived from a
nominalised adjectival or adverbial root. The nominalising of the adjectival or
adverbial root is illustrated by the fact that the root may assume the features (e.g.
marking as 'temporal') of nouns in analogous preposition+noun constructions.
However, since these nominalised roots do not function normally as nouns
outside these constructions, adverbs so formed must be regarded as different
from prepositional phrases. An adverb built on this model round an adverbial
root usually has a suffix which is identical to the nominal case-ending required by
the preposition from which the prefix employed is derived. [Many examples.]
75-30
Ulukhanov, I. S. KoMnoHeHTbi 3HaneHHa HjieHHMbix CJIOB.
[Meaning components of segmentable words.] Bonpocbi MbiKO3HOHUH(Moscow), 2 (1974), 71-8.
The meaning of a derivationally motivated word has three components. The
motivating base is the word with the same root as the more complex word and
closest to it semantically (e.g. zpn3Humb 'make dirty' from zpn3Hbiu'dirty');
the second component is the meaning of the derivational affix, paying due regard
to homonymy and polysemy. Some derivationally motivated words are idiomatic,
their meaning not being fully predictable from the meaning of motivating base
and affix, e.g. m a c a w a ' l e a t h e r jacket' (from KO^flHww'leather') [examples].
In non-motivated segmentable words, the semantic component not attributable
to the affix is to be attributed to the root (e.g.zoendma 'beef, where -uua is
'meat') [examples]. Where an affix occurs only in one word (e.g. cmeKAHpyc
'glass beads', cf. cmeKAo 'glass'), the meaning of the affix consists of those
semantic elements that are not part of the meaning of the motivating base.
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